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Third War
The Third War (Also known as the Third Great War) was a conflict between the mortal races of Azeroth and the Burning Legion. Unlike the previous wars, the Third War took place in the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. In the war, the ancient Kaldorei or Night Elves and Tauren were reintroduced to the world. =The Political Climate= ---- Interbellum Orc Conflicts Before the Third War began, the prophet Medivh came to the young Orcish Warchief Thrall in a dream. Medivh told him that he must rally his people and move them across the sea to Kalimdor in order to escape the shadow that was coming to consume the land. Trusting the prophet's words, and wishing to find a new home for his people, Thrall listened to his call, freed his kin from the Alliance Internment camps and sailed west on stolen boats. Tension among the Nobility When the orcs broke free from their prison camps, the nobles were in a great deal of panic on what to do next. The nearby towns sent hunting squads to track down these escaped Orcish warbands as they had little to no luck finding them. The Nobles were in a state of panic, worried about what the orcs might do next to their people. The nobles planned, fought, argued, and bickered on what to do about the situation. The whole kingdom was in a state of emergency. =Eastern Kingdoms= ---- The Scourging of Lordaeron The Plague During the early months of the Third war, a mysterious plague started to appear in the northern lands. It would be distributed by grain produced at Andorhal and would be shipped and distributed to other towns and villages within the kingdom. Whoever would consume the grain would become sick and die, then turned into undead whoever consumed it. When rumors start to spread on how a mysterious plague had gripped the northern lands, as the majority of Lordaeron's attention was focused on the Horde's flight and a few skirmishes from the Blackrock and Dragonmaw clans to the south, King Menethil sent his son Arthas Menethil accompanied with Jaina Proudmoore to investigate after being confronted by Medivh telling his people were in danger. Upon discovering that the source of the plague was directly linked to the grain distribution center of Andorhal and the Cult of the Damned's involvement, he tried to stop the plague and tracked down Kel'Thuzad and Mal'Ganis throughout the infected kingdom. As the plague started to spread and the Scourge growing in numbers, the Kingdom of Lordaeron was in panic. Local skirmishes between the living and the dead taking place in Darrowshire, Hearthglen, and Corin's Crossing, entire Gnoll tribes were wiped out, people getting sick and dying, the dead from local graveyards rising from their graves, and entire villages and settlements wiped out from the undead onslaught. The Culling of Stratholme Upon arriving at Stratholme, they discovered that they were already too late and the grain had already been distributed amongst the villagers. Arthas ordered Uther and his Order of Silver Hand Paladins to destroy the town. But Uther refused. For his defiance, Arthas disbanded the order of the silver hand and called all those still loyal to him to purge the city. Uther, Jaina and the Silver Hand left the scene. Upon entering, Arthas met Mal'Ganis himself. The two had a race of sorts for the lives of the town. Arthas wished to destroy them, Mal'Ganis wished to corrupt them. When the town was in ruin, Arthas demanded a final showdown with Mal'Ganis. Mal'Ganis, however, slipped away, vowing to meet him in Northrend. After the Culling, Jaina and Uther returned to Stratholme to bury the dead. Jaina was met by Medivh, who told her Arthas would only die if he went to Northrend. Medievh then told Jaina, as he had told everyone else, that she must travel west to Kalimdor, as she did. The Quel'thalas Campaign After prince Arthas became king and murdered his father, he retrieved the remains of Kel'Thuzad by killing Uther that was keeping them. As he retrieved the remains of Kel'Thuzad, he was told by the Lich King to take the remains to the Sunwell to revive him. He gathered all the scourge forces and marched to Quel'Thalas, slaughtering any in his way including the Ranger-General Sylvanas Windrunner and later raising her as undead for "The Trouble he went through." Eventually, they reached the Isle of Quel'Danas and raised Kel'Thuzad back to the dead. About 90% of the high elf population was lost. Dalaran Burns After the fall of Quel'Thalas, the Scourge traveled south to Dalaran to obtain the book of Medivh and use it to summon Eredar Lord Archimonde to Azeroth. The Kirin Tor threw everything they had at them, but failed to prevent the Scourge from stealing the spell book. With the book, Kel'Thuzad summoned Archimonde and the Burning Legion to Azeroth. Archimonde destroyed Dalaran which resulted in the rest of the Legion invasion. =Northrend= The Northrend Campaign and the Fall of Arthas After arriving in Northrend, Arthas discovered Muradin and his expedition attacked by the undead and was cut off from the rest of the world. He had come to Northrend to obtain the runeblade. When word from Lordaeron called Arthas's men back home, he used mercenaries to burn their ships before turning his forces on the mercenaries. With no way to get home, he told his men that their only way home was to get the Frostmourne. When he finally found the blade, he and Muradin learned that the blade was cursed. Arthas accepted this curse and took the blade, though Muradin was knocked out. With Frostmourne, Arthas lead an assault on the Scourge base where Mal'Ganis was stationed and killed the dreadlord. With Mal'Ganis dead, Arthas fled to the wilderness of Northrend leaving his men to fend for themselves. Following the Northrend Campaign, Arthas came home with a warm welcome and under the influence of the Lich King, he drew the blade and killed his father and took the crown of Lordaeron for himself. With the king dead and Arthas taking the throne, Lordaeron was given to the scourge. With several holdouts in Lordaeron left, the citizens either gave in to the scourge, held out, or exiled to the south Eastern Kingdoms or across the sea with Jaina Proudmoore. =Kalimdor= ---- Tauren-Centaur Conflict In Kalimdor, as the Newly founded Horde and the Alliance of Lordaeron remnants settled on the continent. They realized they weren't alone. Conflicts suddenly arose between the Centaur tribes and the scattered Tauren tribes of Mulgore. Thrall and his horde forces stumbled upon a skirmish between the Bloodhoof Tribe lead by Cairne Bloodhoof and a pack of Centaur warriors. As Thrall fought the Centaurs off, Cairne thanked him as he and his tribe offered to join the newly formed horde. Together with the help of Thrall and The Darkspear trolls, Cairne and his tribe drove off the Centaurs off of their lands and reclaimed what was lost to them. The Horde forces pressed north towards Ashenvale forest. Human-Warsong Conflict As Thrall and Cairne traveled for days through the barrens, they realized they were not the only ones who made it to Kalimdor. Jaina and the rest of the survivors of Lordaeron engaged in various Skirmishes with Grom and the Warsong Clan, most of these skirmishes took place in the Barrens, Ashenvale, and some in Stonetalon. The Newly founded Horde fought off various brigades from various kingdoms that came to Kalimdor to assist Jaina including a Gilneas Brigade sent by Darius Crowley. Horde-Kaldorei-Alliance Conflict When Jaina and Thrall reached the Stonetalon Mountains, they encountered Medivh and he told them both for the horde and alliance to put their differences aside and face the legion threatening the world. As Grom disobeyed Thrall for attacking Jaina's forces. As punishment by Thrall, Grom and the Warsong Clan were sent into Ashenvale forest to collect lumber to build their capital. The harvesting of the lumber got the attention of the local Night Elves as they attacked the Warsong clan, cutting through them swiftly as they were outnumbered. The Warsong orcs fought back and managed to fend them off. The Night Elves fought their way through Alliance and Horde alike as they desperately defended their ancient lands from the outside invaders. Thrall and Jaina attempted to contact the night elves in order to maintain a peace treaty knowing the legion was coming. Ashenvale Front As the Warsong orcs fought the Alliance and Night elves alike, Cenarius was summoned to deal with the invaders seeing them as demon spawn. He was so powerful, Grom and the Warsong Clan could not defeat him. As they were in search of a way to defeat Cenarius, Grom and the Warsong Clan searched for a powerful well filled with Mannoroth's blood nearby as they drank from it, after consumption they became fel infused and powerful. They eventually killed Cenarius as they were once again under the influence of the legion. Meanwhile, The Legion and the Scourge invaded Kalimdor and marched their way through the forests of Ashenvale as they tore their way through everyone that stood in their way. The Defence of Mount Hyjal The united factions gathered at the Hyjal Summit as they prepped for the Legion's invasion as Malfurion planned to lure Archimonde into a trap and use the World tree's power to defeat him. Jaina's forces were stationed at the bottom of the Summit, Thrall and Cairne's forces were at the middle, and the Night Elf forces were at the base of the world tree. As the Demonic Armies approached the Summit, Jaina's armies stood their ground against the Demons and Undead. They fought them off until they broke through their lines, Archimonde arrived as the human base was overrun, Jaina and her forces teleported to safety. The Horde forces soon became overrun as Archimonde and his armies smashed their way through Human Footmen, Orc Grunts, and Tauren Chieftains. Thrall eventually retreated as well. As Archimonde reached the top of the Summit, the night elf forces held their ground as Archimonde smashed through the Sentinel defenders until he reached the Nordrassil. As Archimonde attempted to drain the World tree, Malfurion blew the horn of Cenarius as the spirits of the forest were summoned. The wisps swarmed the demon lord as they attacked him until they exploded causing the destruction of the demon lord, the demon armies surrounding him, and the world tree. The Third War was over. =The Exodus= ---- Early Orcish Departures As Thrall fought his way out of the Lordaeron internment camps, he set sail onto stolen alliance ships along with Grom Hellscream (The Father of Garrosh) the leader of the Warsong clan after he freed him from one of the camps. As the ship was on the route towards Kalimdor, they went through the Maelstrom which heavily damaged the fleet and it caused their route to be shifted towards the Darkspear isles. Battle of the Darkspear Isles As they landed on the shores of the Darkspear Islands to repair their damaged ships, Thrall came across the Darkspear Troll leader Sen'jin. Thrall offered to assist Sen'jin and his tribe in taking out a Kul'Tiran Naval Base, a murloc tribe, and a sea witch. Captured by the murlocs and taken underground, Thrall and Sen'jin fought their way out of the lair and killed the sea witch. As they killed the sea witch, Sen'jin was mortally wounded during the fight. Sen'jin told Thrall to take his people with him on the trip to Kalimdor as the island collapsed around them, they repaired the ships in time as Thrall's people and the newly founded Darkspear Tribe set sail once more to Kalimdor. Human Refugees As Lordaeron fell to the Scourge and the King murdered, Jaina received a visit from Medivh to tell her to gather as many people as she could and to "Go to the distant lands of Kalimdor." She listened as she gathered the remaining survivors of Lordaeron and got aboard some ships as they set sail. When they arrived on the shores of the forgotten continent, Jaina and the rest of the survivors set up base as they gathered their forces in preparation for what else will decide to attack them. The Warsong Operation To help their new allies, Jaina created a magical soul gem to capture the Grom within it, and take the gem to a prepared magical circle to free his spirit of corruption. Standing between the humans and free orcs, however, was the entire Warsong clan, backed by tons of demons that waited in ambush and infernals that rained from the sky. Despite killing many of the Warsong clan, Thrall captured Grom and brought him back for a ritual of cleansing. Along with Thrall's Shamans, Jaina, and Jaina's best priests and sorcerers, they managed to pull the demonic corruption out of Grom. Thrall and Grom then challenged Mannoroth, as Thrall was defeated, Grom managed to deliver a killing blow, destroying Mannoroth and freeing the orcs at the cost of his own life. Thus Grom redeemed himself for bringing them into the Legion. Once again the orcs were free. The Grand Alliance After Tyrande Whisperwind freed Illidan and awakened the Druids of the Claw, Druids of the Wing and Malfurion Stormrage, Medivh contacted Tyrande and Malfurion and told them of the revelations of the Burning Legion's return and his responsibility of summoning the orcs to Azeroth and the cause of the First and Second Wars. The Horde, Alliance and the Night elf forces set their differences aside and prepared to face the Legion. =Aftermath= ---- Political Ramifications The Third War caused a mass exile of refugees from Lordaeron to move to Stormwind. The Survivors of Hyjal Summit would later become half of Might of Kalimdor and the 7th Legion. The Night Elves were once again exposed to the outside world and eventually joined the Alliance. Jaina Proudmoore and her armies started the construction of Theramore Isle in Dustwallow Marsh. Teldrassil was the new home for the Night elves with the help of the druids and Nozdormu, Malfurion goes missing and Fandral Staghelm takes leadership temporarily. The Horde and Alliance start a temporary peace treaty until four years later when conflicts start to arise in Ashenvale and the harvesting of lumber. Long-term Damage The war caused great damage to the land. Lordaeron was forever plagued and scarred making it uninhabitable. The Scourge broke free from the legion and have major strongholds in Northrend, Lordaeron, and a small hideout in Razorfen downs. The Burning Legion has strongholds in parts of Ashenvale and Darkwhisper Gorge. The Night elves lose their immortality due to the destruction of Nordrassil and their sacrifice to save the world. The Gnomes lost their home city Gnomeregan due to Ironforge's focus on the war. The high elves nearly went extinct due to the scourge invasion of Quel'Thalas, about 90% of them were killed. The Third War was one of the deadliest conflicts on Azeroth and caused a lot of changes and destruction to the lands. Partially adatped from Wowpedia Category:Events Category:Wars Category:Burning Legion Category:Kingdom of Lordaeron Category:Kingdom of Quel'Thalas Category:Undead Scourge Category:Third War